On a hot late summer day in 1976, a mob of young men – all white except one – descended on Washington Square Park with pipes and bats, and attacked any people of color they could find. 'Downtown Race Riot' takes us back to this day, in the cramped Village apartment of Mary Shannon (Chloë Sevigny), a strung-out, free-wheeling single mom, as her son Pnut, and his Haitian best friend Massive wrestle with their obligation to join the riot. The boys, torn between loyalty to each other and to the neighborhood, grasp for ways to keep the violence from destroying their friendship forever.

$59 tickets valid for performances through 23, 2017. Cannot be combined
with any other discount or applied to previously purchased tickets.
Limit 8 tickets per person. Not applicable for premium seating. Dates,
programming and artists subject to change. Subject to availability.
Offer may be revoked at any time. All sales final. No refunds or
exchanges.

$45 tickets valid for performances from Nov 14 - Dec 2, 2017. $59 tickets valid for performances Dec 5 - 23, 2017. Must purchase by Dec 3, 2017 at 11:59pm. Cannot be combined with any other discount or applied to previously purchased tickets. Limit 8 tickets per person. Not applicable for premium seating. Dates, programming and artists subject to change. Subject to availability. Offer may be revoked at any time. All sales final. No refunds or exchanges.

"About as likely to raise your blood pressure as a homeopathic sleeping pill...You are likely to have felt your eyelids getting heavier and heavier...The action seems to be occurring at a hazy remove, as if it were operating according to sense memory...Sevigny exudes an air of defensive detachment...But it’s not always easy to tell how much her affectless mien is an acting choice and how much it comes from being infected by the somnolent rhythms of a leaden script."
Full Review

"It's hard to argue against the authenticity of director Elliott's carefully designed and furiously acted production...Yet something about the play itself feels excessive...Sevigny embodies the tension between her self-image as a hippie earth mother and her reality as a junkie...Resulting in a performance that veers wildly between nuanced and completely over-the-top. That's true for the rest of the actors as well...Elliot aims for gritty social realism, but too often lands in sensationalism."
Full Review

"Sevigny plays a sexy-hippie drug addict like a pro in Rosenfeld’s unfocused new play. But she also gracefully shows us the better side of her character...Rosenfeld can’t seem to focus his attention on a central character — and director Elliott can’t seem to do anything about that...Mary is such a compelling character that Rosenfeld is forced to confine her to her room and have her shoot up and nod off in order to concentrate on the other players in his muddled story."
Full Review

“Despite its provocative title, and despite a game effort by director Elliot’s ensemble cast, Rosenfeld’s fact-inspired drama ‘Downtown Race Riot ‘ is a bit of a bore...There's a full-out brawl in the apartment involving almost everyone, during which Sevigny gingerly taps someone on the head with a break-away bottle, causing it to shatter. Given the cliched characters and flat dialogue, that was pretty much the dramatic highlight.”
Full Review

"The play never conjures up the sense of danger you associate with the period. Watching it is like walking through a seedy neighborhood in the middle of the night, only without the suspense...While its premise would seem to hold the promise of tension, the play is a listless affair marked by long stretches of tediously inconsequential dialogue. Rosenfeld's characters are never remotely interesting, and so we never come to care about them."
Full Review

"There was a black man among the attackers. It’s the most interesting aspect of 'Downtown Race Riot,' which otherwise indulges in clichés as liberally as Mary does heroin...The New Group’s subpar production—which includes comically on-the-nose design, unconvincing Noo Yawk accents and strangely slack staging by Scott Elliott—exacerbates the play’s flaws. Tension should mount as the onstage clock ticks down to riot time, but you’ll likely be counting the minutes until you can leave."
Full Review

"Succeeds as both a tense drama and a flavorful slice of Greenwich Village life in the bad old 1970s....Rosenfeld's writing thoroughly captures the temper of the times...Elliott's production abounds in good performances...Those seated in the left and right sections -- especially in the first couple of rows -- will be forced to crane their necks constantly just to get a glimpse of what is going on...Eminently worth seeing. Just be careful about where you sit."
Full Review

"Surprisingly there’s no real exploration of the forces that would motivate the young men to wild out in such a way. While Rosenfeld sets up a gripping dilemma for Jimmy he loosens that grip with a lot of side conversations and subplots...Elliott’s direction and McLane’s shallow set also dribble away the dramatic tension...There’s a smart and moving play lurking somewhere inside 'Downtown Race Riot' but this version feels like an early draft, with its tone and focus still unclarified."
Full Review

"Rosenfeld chooses to dramatize this actual event indirectly...The result feels like a missed opportunity...Largely a disappointment—undercooked in the first half, then overheated at the end. Still, Rosenfeld’s script does offer some precisely observed character and period details...The seven-member cast includes several compelling performances, especially that by Chloë Sevigny...Sevigny gives a nuanced performance as a loving and neglectful mother."
Full Review

“A stumbling, hour and 40-minute, domestic drama about a morally confused Greenwich Village family… Sevigny…makes a highly credible Mary…For all its attempts at veracity, 'Downtown Race Riot' has an ersatz quality that fails to make these people and their problems real. The riot itself comes off as merely a trigger for a drama of family dysfunction; too many distractions create disunity...Dialogue that too often sounds above the pay grade of its speakers also punctures plausibility.”
Full Review

“Not only set in 1976, much of this new play by Rosenfeld feels like it was written in that era as well. It flows along with a distinct Landord Wilson vibe...The first hour is a captivating slow burn, then it goes a little off the rails, then it blows up in your face...There are a lot of balls in the air here and the always fine director, Elliott, juggles them skillfully...In lieu of a gratifying climax...we are left with an unsatisfying, wordless fade to black.”
Full Review

"Tepid despite its starry and talented cast...Nothing about this show is really action packed. Yes, we get sex; nudity, drug use and a fight that is a little scary due to the proximity of the stage and seats, but nothing that begs 'watch me'...Scott Elliott’s direction is well done for the space, but when your text is so mundane instead of biting into the subject, how much can you do?"
Full Review

“’Riot’ concerns a smacked-out mother and her son and daughter, the former a lesbian except when she’s not; the latter a tough pretty boy who hangs with a group of mini-gangsters...I can’t recall another play in which every actor appeared to dread the words about to emerge from his or her mouth, and I can’t say I blame them. The performances under Scott Elliott’s uncharacteristically enervating direction are as halting as the writing is stilted.”
Full Review

“Directed with focus and clarity...While the cast do their job with intensity and focus, the play never really feels urgent or dangerous...It doesn’t register as fully authentic...The real emotionality is lost in the overly wordy dialogue...The ending just left me wanting a tiny bit more to chew on...'Downtown Race Riot' never feels entirely real or as edgy as what we can read about that hot summer day out on the streets of downtown NYC. It never feels like this 'Riot' gets going.”
Full Review

“The play lacks logos, pathos, and ethos and is completely devoid of catharsis. It is difficult to care about any of the characters or their hackneyed conflicts that drive drab, uninteresting plot lines...Under Elliott’s direction, the talented cast struggles to make sense of Rosenfeld’s script...Failing to address any meaningful discussion about systemic racism or any significant conversation about the 1970s race riots, ‘Downtown Race Riot’ remains a puzzling foray into the realm of the absu...
Full Review

“This overheated melodrama which goes on a bit too long takes on many important themes (racial hatred, drug addiction, petty crime, sexual identity, financial insecurity, etc.) without making any pertinent point about any of them. While the dialogue and the milieu are gritty, ‘Downtown Race Riot’ recycles a great many stereotypes and clichés.”
Full Review

"If you are going to push the envelope in theater, you really ought to make sure there is enough inside that envelope that makes it worth pushing...Despite the subject matter, the play fails to build in much tension or suspense...More of a sketch than a fully-realized dramatic work, and it is nearly lost in the plot threads that take us, maze-like, into too many starts and stops that lead nowhere...Nothing is developed adequately enough to hold our interest."
Full Review

"Rosenfeld spends more exposition on the negotiations for this violent confab in the park than the Allies needed to invade Normandy...It would be easy to credit Sevigny with single-handedly slapping an otherwise flaccid drama into shape. But Rosenfeld’s writing for her mother character is simply sharper than it is for the others...It’s doubtful from all his riot angst that Rosenfeld would agree, but these kids show every sign of surviving a terrible, though fascinating mother."
Full Review

"The only thing functional, apart from the acting quality, in this dull look at a dysfunctional family and equally screwed up friends is the apartment set...We don’t actually get to see the riot, which at least would enliven the play...The focus is primarily on the mostly uninteresting characters...For all of the sincere strivings of the fine cast members, the play doesn’t pack the strength needed to keep an audience in its grip. It rambles along for 90 minutes."
Full Review

"Making a rare appearance on stage and playing against ingenuous type, Sevigny brings understated charisma to a role that defies clichés...Only Demeo and Sovich strike a hackneyed note with wise-guy bravado that sounds like warmed-over Scorsese. But 'Downtown Race Riot' also has the measured, doom-laden pacing of 'Mean Streets' as director Scott Elliott dials up the tension to a lurid yet realistic denouement that should be enough to put an end to that ’70s feeling."
Full Review

"What makes Sevigny such an arresting actor is her relentless honesty...Elliott conducts this brilliant cast like a virtuoso maestro with Sevigny as his concert master...The impeccably choreographed stage combat is startling and alarming...Rosenfeld’s play is brilliant in its honest understatement. He never resorts to melodrama or sensational histrionics. His characters are just simple people trying to survive a dangerous world and doing what they can to escape its harsh reality."
Full Review

"Sevigny’s Mary is a ragged delight...Sentiment(ality) gets a little out of hand now and then. Yet these indulgences tweaked my attention only a little; Rosenfeld’s language sweeps us along. We teeter down its consistently sharp and jagged edge as the tension slowly builds...With all its humor, the play bears a troubling message for today: Friendship and family, potent forces though they are, can’t solve the conundrum of tribalism."
Full Review

"Not a whole lot of 'Downtown Race Riot' makes sense...I’ve gone on at length about the set, primarily because it’s the most interesting part of the play; the story, inspired by an actual 1976 riot in Washington Square Park, is slack and uninvolving, with unlikable characters and questionable plot developments...Elliott can’t do much with Rosenfeld’s muddled, stilted dialogue or the inefficient acting, although it is a treat to see Oscar nominee Sevigny so up close and personal."
Full Review

"For a while it appears that Rosenfeld may be venturing into pretty daring territory—a satire on the scam artists who drain government money to the detriment of 'the deserving poor'...Soon, however, additional threads of plot are woven in...In any case, what seemed to begin as a social satire veers into melodrama. Cannily, though, Rosenfeld stops short of a grim ending...Even if it’s not wholly satisfying, there is much in Rosenfeld’s play to appreciate."
Full Review

"Rosenfeld turns cartoons into real characters: with a huge assist from a talented cast and director, of course...Rosenfeld draws sympathetic but realistic portraits of his play’s inhabitants...Still, the play and these people don’t go anywhere unsurprising: they are fated to remain behind, thanks to class or race, which isn’t an earth-shattering revelation...Sevigny’s Mary is scarily authentic...A marvelously physical performance that makes her character and the play she’s in seem substantial."
Full Review

See it if
You like plays which are overdrawn and with language and dialogue which are often hard to follow or even hear.

Don't see it if
You have little patience for convoluted scripts and a stage that is too wide to allow the actors' voices to be clearly understood.

Also
The language and the speaking by the actors are often not clear and the width of the stage renders some scenes to be very hard to see and to hear. At the end, it is hard to really comprehend what the writer was getting out.... Read moreRead less

See it if
you have a connection to Washington Square Park in the 1970s; you usually like New Group productions; you're a fan of charicatures.

Don't see it if
Could have, should have, but didn't go anywhere. Boring and trite. Accents of a couple of the characters are cartoonish and stereotyped.

Also
The stage format and audience seating are panoramic. It is near impossible to see the far ends of the stage if you are sitting on the sides or the first row. Many moans and groans from audience members trying to switch seats. The show is so slow and boring that people were walking out throughout the performance (no intermission).... Read moreRead less

See it if
Fun to view the new batch of talent. Five young actors in showcase roles. Sevigny is somehow a draw, more for her name than actual talent.

Don't see it if
Must be in center section. Sides are a tough view.

Also
Scott is cute and sexy. Josh Pais turns in another excellent performance. Set is well designed, but puts a premium on center seating. I was side, but on aisle. Any further out is a poor seat.... Read moreRead less

Raunchy, Disappointing, Slow, Actually raunchy is a bit harsh, but there is nudity and a dry-hump on a couch. shock value only, Golden globe winning actress chloe sevigny is good but much of the play she is left in a side bedroom watching tv -wtf??

See it if
There's RIOT going on in midtown at the Signature, but it's long slog down the sidewalk to 10th av, then a long slog till the aforesaid riot

Don't see it if
If you aren't a BIG fan of Chloe Sevigny or bare-chested boys, then skip it. Seems like a Sam Shepherd wannabe wrote it, no cigar. Great set

Also
One thing I would like to add it that THE SET by Derek McClane is an amazing reproduction of a railroad-style flat with a girls bedroom to the left, a living room-kitchen-foyer combo center, and the mom's bedroom to the right. So if U love Chloe Sevigny, sit house right. If like young tits, sit house left. Topless boys abound so sit center if that's what U like for visuals. Easily the largest set I've ever seen for an Off-Broadway show. Kudos to the prop master too for filling it with tons of period stuff, totally authentic in look and feel of the times. So ya see, if U can score a cheap ticket and don't fall asleep you'll get to see a Great set and a pretty good climactic riot tho Stage violence with stage blood can be upsetting to some folks. You've been warned!... Read moreRead less

Also
Why would they pick this lousy play that says nothing!! Wasted time and effort. Acting was bad. Even the set is lousy as a large part of the audience cannot see some of the "action". Shame on The New Group for wasting our time.... Read moreRead less

See it if
you're a Chloe Sevigny fan, want to see a good perf by a young actor, David Levi, like new plays, interested in NYC 1970's history & fights

Don't see it if
you don't like lengthy periods of non-action or depictions of drug use and sex or plenty of unresolved issues,

Also
The detail of the set is magnificent, but if you are seated upstairs on the sides you miss some of the set and scenes, many uncomfortable questions are left unanswered which is okay but disturbing as you imagine the near future of the characters... Read moreRead less